This is my second installment in two weeks on stovetop baking. As promised, this week we take a look at a variety of kerosene stoves that I run with diesel fuel, using ovens made for the stovetop. It is not by accident that propane has become ubiquitous in camp stoves, because propane is never smokey and regulating the burn is easy with modern equipment. The problem is, propane requires a pressurized tank to store it, and by the gallon, propane is two to three times the cost per BTU of gasoline and diesel. Of gasoline and diesel, diesel is safer and easier to store, and of stoves that will burn diesel, the wick varieties are easier to control, and they don’t need pumping.
Prepping 101
Show First
Prepping 101: Stovetop Baking With Wood
Updated: March 27, 2016Resources: Portable Woodstove $58.95 Shipped on Ebay SilverFire Hunter Rocket Stove $219 Butterfly Oven – $79 St. Paul Mercantile Perfection Oven – Lehmans $219 Have you noticed that survival is almost always a Catch 22? And by that I don’t mean rimfire lol. What I mean is you have to make a choice in just [...]
Prepping 101: Testing an Electric Can Sealer From China – The Semi-Automatic YZT-200
Updated: March 19, 2016Long term food storage is a fairly complex subject. All food eventually goes bad, so whatever we do to extend that time as long as possible, you have to think about it in those terms. Some foods, like rice, beans, grains, and even flour, in a proper container and with proper precautions, all covered in prior articles, will last up to 20 years. Canned food, bought at the store, could last that long, or even ten times that long, though after a few years the flavor tends to degrade. But from a survival perspective, that’s pretty good. I personally believe that in the grand game of extend and pretend musical chairs, the music has stopped, but you just never know. This could all burn down this month, or it could be years ahead. If you have a free or cheap source of meat, fish, or other high density protein, home canning is something you should consider.
Prepping 101: High Wattage High Frequency Ham Radios on the Cheap
Updated: March 13, 2016A lot of these articles I write for those of you “in the trenches.” And by that I mean the people who have taken seriously the risks that we all face ahead, possibly this year, possibly even this month. Most things I write about I don’t expect a lot of you to go out and [...]
Prepping 101: Zika, Population Control & Planetary Collapse – Buy Your Bed Tents Now
Updated: March 6, 2016It is extremely rare that I suggest a product to you without testing it first, but this week I think it is prudent to let you know what is going on out there in the world of mosquito netting. Big surprise, prices are going up due to the Zika scare, and availability is going down. I got three order cancellations on Ebay in the past few weeks, from sellers in China selling direct from the factory. The spread of Zika is much more of a threat than we are being led to believe. By summer,as mosquito populations increase, cases of Zika will skyrocket, and when the first wave of babies in born in Brazil, from the estimated over 4,000 cases now, the world will be scrambling for ways to keep mosquitoes at bay. If you have females in your group in danger of getting pregnant, now would be the time to purchase some netting products yourself.
Prepping 101: Cheap Kerosene Pressure Stoves with Diesel
Updated: February 28, 2016My whole paradigm on cooking has changed since starting this column. I was like most Americans. When it comes to off the grid cooking, propane was the way to go. 2nd to that was white gas, otherwise known as Coleman Fuel. What I have come to understand is that from a survival perspective, both of those fuels will be extremely rare. I have discovered wood burning “Rocket Stoves” for prior articles, and my latest fascination is with stoves like you’ll see this week that were made for kerosene. As I have explained in past weeks, these stoves burn regular gaspump diesel just as clean as kerosene, which is getting harder and harder to find, especially at a reasonable price. Diesel has to meet new EPA standards for sulfur emissions, and that has made it almost indistinguishable from kerosene. Diesel does not produce flammable fumes, and if you toss a match into a puddle of diesel, the match will go out. If you are storing fuel for the collapse, diesel is your best option, but you do need stoves for cooking and heaters for heating that are specifically designed for kerosene to burn it in a useful way.
Prepping 101: Keeping Bees – Alternative Hives vs. Langstroth Hives
Updated: February 21, 2016Cracking the black box of survival. That is what this column has become more than anything else. This week I would like to demystify another survival topic that, much like Ham radios, radiation and EMP, is fraught with disinformation and obfuscation online. Learning to keep bees is not inexpensive, but it is a hobby that [...]
Prepping 101: Hand Crank Sewing Machines (vs. Gold & Silver)
Updated: February 13, 2016Hand Crank Sewing Machines on Ebay Hand Crank for Belt Drive Machines $13.95 Hand Crank and Spoked Wheel $24.95 This week I would like to introduce an incredible invention to a few of you called the hand crank sewing machine. Sure, it was invented over 100 years ago, but they are no less amazing today. [...]
Prepping 101: Sealing Food in Cans for Long Term Storage – How to Set Up & Adjust an Ives Way Can Sealer
Updated: February 6, 2016This week will be my first installment into canning food in steel cans. Think of it this way. You haven’t eaten in a week. You just killed a deer. You really would like to be able to eat venison next week without having to kill another deer. What do you do?
Prepping 101: Testing Geiger Counters with Cesium, Strontium, Cobalt – Inexpensive Built Kits
Updated: January 31, 2016Resources: Geiger Counters: Ebay Seller Impexeris (This is the black GM tube bug from the video, which is a standalone as well as Iphone/Android, and the kits for GM tubes and Arduino) The Black Phone Bug RH Electronics (The red and blue boards from the video, DIY kits you can pay $12 for him to [...]